Estelyn: Thank you for the link to the thread. I thought about searching for something, but I could not immediately think of the right terms with which to search. In hindsight, ‘mental image’ probably would have sufficed. It was interesting to see opinions for both points of view offered by those who read the books either after or immediately before seeing the films.
Saucepan Man: The point you make about book inspired art is fair, and like you, I find that I quickly accept, assimilate or reject any given item or theme with my mental images. My point is that the movies require you to pay attention to an interpretation for over nine hours, and I argue that this has a far greater influence on your own impressions than looking at pictures, and that this influence would be overwhelming if you have not read the books beforehand. I think the point is that we care so much about LoTR that we feel the difference between our book-inspired images and the movie so keenly. I certainly have no trouble letting the film version of say, Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird replace an old mental image.
As for individual discrepancies, there are too many to list, but the one that sprang to mind when I was writing my .sig was that NZ does not really boast a river that could be charitably described as ‘great’. In FoTR the mighty Anduin never looked so small (or so shallow).
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